TLA-611 Ed & Hum Dev I:Understanding Learner (3 credits)
Students explore a wide variety of developmental approaches to learning, including the development of cognition, emotion, and motivation as they apply to diverse learners. Using an integrative approach to development, they apply key theoretical perspectives in creating a multidimensional model of the learner. Students apply developmental and learning theory to support learning approaches appropriate to their target learning groups. (e.g., elementary, middle, and secondary students, teacher colleagues, clients and staff in professional settings.)
TLA-612 ED & Hum Dev II: scholrshp of Teaching (3 credits)
Students make links across current literature in education and instructional design, examining the connections between theories of multiple intelligences and ability-based learning. They explore constuctivist approaches to curriculum design and examine the role of metacognition in learning. They apply frameworks from human development and learning to actual teaching environments. Students examine a range of cases, including their own teaching experiences, as they design approaches to effectively address the teaching and learning issues of the environments in which they work.
TLA-641 Learning Organization & Social Change (3 credits)
Students draw upon a range of disciplines and theories to examine organizational culture, including patterns of leadership, authority, and communication and their impact on the climate of the organization. They analyze case studies of organizational change, identifying sources of success and failure. Critiquing varied approaches in particular settings, they develop proposals for achieving goals for ongoing growth and improvement.
Prerequisite(s): For LTM students: LTM-641 completed. For SPE students: SPE-641. For other MA students: TLA-612 completed.
TLA-651 Educational Inquiry: Research in Action (3 credits)
Students examine the nature of systematic inquiry by using an action research perspective as they address questions related to inprovement of their practice. Focusing on the context of learning environments, they explore the assumptions and applications of varied methodological approaches. Through their experiences with a small-scale action research project, they develop skills in conceptualizing researchable questions; designing research projects; collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data; communicating their findings; and identifying potential limits and benefits of their inquiry for their own professional practice and specific setting.
TLA-697 Independent Study (4 credits)
Under the approval and direction of a faculty member, independent study is available to students.
TLA-750 Practicum (3 credits)
Students engage in an inquiry process related to their work sites. Working with a community mentor, they implement their proposed plan, gathering data and reflecting upon their process in an ongoing way. Students bring the results of their work-based inquiry projects to a discussion of the larger frameworks of learning, development, and social change. They analyze and interpret the results of their study in relation to the research of other students, while also making links to broader questions. They prepare for the presentation of their inquiry in a conference setting.